Ned Rothenberg

Ned Rothenberg composes and performs on saxophones, clarinets, flute and shakuhachi (an end blown Japanese bamboo flute). He has been internationally acclaimed for his solo music which he has presented for the past 25 years in hundreds of concerts throughout North and South America, Europe and Japan. He has lead the ensembles Double Band, Power Lines and Sync (his most recent assemblage with Jerome Harris, acoustic guitar & acoustic bass guitar and Samir Chaterjee, tabla) and was a founding member of the cooperative group New Winds (now with Robert Dick, flutes and Herb Robertson, Trumpet). He has worked in other projects with Paul Dresher, Yuji Takahashi, Sainkho Namchylak, Masahiko Sato, Elliott Sharp, Samm Bennett, John Zorn, Katsuya Yokoyama, Evan Parker and Marc Ribot. He's lived and worked in New York City since 1978.

Rothenberg's musical interests are numerous and his work varies widely in its sonic, emotive and stylistic profiles. A strong underlying element of his instrumental voice is the extension of the woodwind language to incorporate polyphony and accurate microtonal organization through the manipulation of multiphonics, circular breathing, and overtone control, not only using his horns in their standard melodic role but also as rhythmic and harmonic engines in both solo and ensemble contexts. As a composer he can move from "Jazz-funk in cubist perspective, dizzying, yet visceral" (J. Pareles, NY Times re Double Band) to a solo music that is "intense, slightly melancholic, rhapsodic without being sentimental (E. Rothstein, NY times), while avoiding the use of mere effect- "crafting distinct, evocative compositions that boast shape as well as texture" N. Tesser, (Chicago Reader).